Sigurd and Gudrún

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien; Traditional Norse

Time Period: 1001 CE–1500 CE; 1901 CE–1950 CE

Country or Culture: Norway; Western Europe

Genre: Legend

Overview

The legends of Norse literature have fascinated readers and scholars for centuries and have taken root in the cultures of Iceland, Great Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia. These stories—oral histories of prominent Norse families, as well as the legends and mythology of medieval Norse culture—have remained widely relevant throughout the intervening centuries. It is little wonder that one of the preeminent scholars of medieval literature in the early twentieth century, John Ronald Reuel (J. R. R.) Tolkien, would choose two of the most fascinating stories among these legends as the source material for his own saga.

Tolkien, Oxford philology professor and fantasy author, spent many years crafting The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún and did not complete the poem in his lifetime. Published posthumously by his son, Christopher Tolkien, this poem has breathed new life into the story of the misfortunate Sigurd and Gudrún. In both the original Norse legends and in Tolkien’s version, the characters struggle against pride, loyalty, wrath, and cunning in their efforts to achieve powers and wealth. While some of the nuances of the Norse cultural context may be foreign to modern readers, Tolkien offers a timeless interpretation of these very human emotions and the consequences that befall those who tangle with them.

Tolkien’s Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún consists of two lays (narrative poems): Völsungakviða en nýja (The New Lay of the Völsungs), telling the story of Sigurd, and Guðrúnarkviða en nýja (The New Lay of Gudrún), telling the story of Gudrún. In “The New Lay of the Völsungs,” Tolkien offers a brief recap of the creation of the world and reveals that Sigurd is a direct descendent of the Norse god Odin. Sigurd is prophesied to be the Dragon Slayer, whose life and deeds will herald the destruction and rebirth of the world. However heroic his deeds, he is weak-willed with women and is killed after breaking his oath to Brynhild by marrying Gudrún. Brynhild, betrayed, orchestrates Sigurd’s murder. At the beginning of “The New Lay of Gudrún,” Gudrún, who knew nothing of Brynhild’s treachery, is heartbroken and alone, bereft of the husband she loved. Forced to marry King Atli against her wishes, her loyalties are split between her new husband and her brothers, who engage in a battle against Atli. Her lamentable tale ends after she has murdered her sons and her new husband, and wanders alone in the woods pining for Sigurd before finally drowning herself in the sea. The stories are tragic but reveal elements of human nature that transcend culture and epoch.

“Of gold were the days, / gleaming silver, / silver gleaming / ere Sigurd came. / A maid was I then, / a maiden fair; / only dreams vexed me, / dreams of evil. . . . Rememberest thou / what on marriage-bed / in love we pledged, / as we laid us down? — / the light I would leave / to look for thee, / from hell thou wouldst ride / and haste to me!”

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

The Old Norse sagas Völsungasaga and Poetic Edda (or Elder Edda), from which Tolkien draws heavily for his story of Sigurd and Gudrún, relied on contemporary readers’ familiarity with the characters of Norse mythology and related oral histories. Composed some seven hundred years after the Völsungasaga and the Poetic Edda, TheLegend of Sigurd and Gudrún owes a tremendous literary debt to these earlier works. As such, a New Historicist approach to Tolkien’s work highlights both the social and cultural significance of the poem in its own time, and its debt to the culture in which its tales were first engendered.

Summary

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún begins with “The New Lay of the Völsungs” and its story of the creation of the world. A sybil (female prophet) foretells that the world will be saved by a son of Odin, a god and dragon slayer. Many ages later, the god Loki kills Ótr, son of the demon Hreidmar, who has disguised himself as an otter at a waterfall. Hreidmar and his remaining sons, Fafnir and Regin, demand compensation for Ótr’s death. To pay them, Loki steals the weregild (literally “man-gold,” or the monetary value of a man) from the dwarf Andvari, who is fishing at the waterfall. Andvari curses the gold, but when Loki delivers the weregild to Hreidmar, his warning of the curse goes unheeded.

Meanwhile, Odin fathers children with mortals hoping for the birth of the foretold hero. Among his descendents is Völsung, a king, and his family line. Twins Sigmund and Signý are born to King Völsung, great-grandson of Odin. A king named Siggeir challenges Sigmund and loses; he takes Signý as his wife but does not forget the earlier slight, and he later declares war on King Völsung. Signý begs that her brothers be saved, but they are left to die. Only Sigmund survives and escapes to a cave where he and Signý conceive a son, Sinfjötli.

Sigmund and his son Sinfjötli reclaim the land of the Völsungs, where Sigmund rules for many years. Sigmund eventually marries and his wife murders Sinfjötli; Sinfjötli joins King Völsung in Valhalla, a great hall in the gods’ realm of Asgard.

Years later, Sigmund takes the beautiful Sigrlinn as his wife. In battle, Sigmund is bested by a disguised Odin, who wounds Sigmund and breaks his treasured sword. Though Sigrlinn promises to heal her husband’s wounds, Sigmund refuses, predicting that the child she carries will be the dragon slayer. This child—Sigurd—is sent to be fostered by Hreidmar’s son Regin once his lineage is determined.

Later still, Regin tricks Sigurd into fighting Fafnir—Regin’s own brother— who has taken the form of a dragon to protect Ótr’s ransom. From Sigmund’s broken sword, Regin fashions the sword that Sigurd will use to kill Fafnir.

Having slain the dragon, Sigurd travels toward Hindarfell, a mountain. Climbing to its summit, Sigurd encounters the sleeping Brynhild. Awakening, Brynhild explains that she will wed only the prophesied dragon slayer. When she learns that he indeed killed a dragon, Brynhild pledges her vows to Sigurd, but she will not marry Sigurd until he is a king. She cautions Sigurd of his conduct while on his quest for a kingdom.

“Of gold were the days, / gleaming silver, / silver gleaming / ere Sigurd came. / A maid was I then, / a maiden fair; / only dreams vexed me, / dreams of evil. . . . Rememberest thou / what on marriage-bed / in love we pledged, / as we laid us down? — / the light I would leave / to look for thee, / from hell thou wouldst ride / and haste to me!”

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

Sigurd arrives at the court of the Niflungs—another royal family like the Völsungs—and is welcomed warmly by King Gjuki. Princess Gudrún and her brothers, Prince Gunnar and Prince Högni, welcome Sigurd warmly. Quickly becoming the Niflungs’ hero and earning the honorary title of king, Sigurd thinks of setting out to reclaim Brynhild and marry her as he promised. But Gjuki’s wife, Queen Grímhild, concocts a love potion that causes Sigurd to forget about Brynhild and marry her daughter Gudrún instead.

Still among the Niflungs, Sigurd marries Gudrún; Grímhild, hearing rumors of gold, urges her son Gunnar to marry Brynhild. Gunnar travels to Brynhild’s hall to find it surrounded by a fire that only Sigurd can pass through. When Gunnar is unable ride his horse through the flames to reach Brynhild, Grímhild casts a spell and Sigurd takes Gunnar’s likeness and passes through the flames with ease. Brynhild, having pledged to wed the man who can cross the fire, accepts “Gunnar” not knowing that it is a disguised Sigurd; the two share a bed with a sword lying between them.

At Brynhild’s wedding to Gunnar, the spell cast by Grímhild’s love potion is broken and Sigurd’s memory of Brynhild returns and he remembers his oath to marry her. Later, Sigurd tries to reconcile with Brynhild, at which point she curses him and his wife, Gudrún, foretelling of an early death for them both. Brynhild then goads Gunnar into killing Sigurd, falsely declaring that Gunnar has been cuckolded. Brynhild then falls on her sword, and she and Sigurd are given a Viking burial on a funeral pyre. In Valhalla, Odin welcomes Sigurd and Brynhild and they speak of the Last Battle.

The second section of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún features “The New Lay of Gudrún.” King Atli (Attila the Hun) casts his eye on the mourning Gudrún, now a widow, and her gold. Despite Gudrún’s protestations, Grímhild arranges her marriage to Atli, who never loses his lust for the gold and eventually lays a trap for Gudrún’s brothers, Gunnar and Högni. Both brothers and Grímhild mistrust Atli, but at the reassurance of Atli’s vassal, Vigni, the brothers agree to depart.

When the Niflung brothers arrive in Hunland, they realize that Vigni has tricked them. The brothers hang Vigni, and a battle ensues, during which Atli demands the gold paid as ransom in exchange for sparing their lives. The brothers refuse, and Atli then demands that the money be paid as weregild for the slain Sigurd on behalf of Gudrún. The brothers still refuse, and the battle resumes, ending with many deaths on both sides.

Gudrún, having listened to the conflict, coaxes Atli’s Gothic warriors to fight alongside the Niflungs. This shifted allegiance turns the tide of the battle, and the Niflungs capture Atli. When Gudrún begs that Atli’s life be spared, the brothers mock him and cast him aside. However, Atli uses this opportunity to seek reinforcements and to renew his attack on Gunnar and Högni.

After five days, Atli feels that he can only win by conceding to the humiliating tactic of setting fire to his father’s mead hall, now held by Gunnar and Högni and their men. With the hall ablaze, Gunnar and Högni emerge and are captured by the Huns. Gudrún pleads that their lives be spared, as they are the kin of her sons Erp and Eitil. Atli again demands the gold hoard and kills Högni and Gunnar when they again refuse.

At a feast celebrating his victory, Atli drinks from two goblets that Gudrún has presented him. As he drinks, Gudrún announces to all assembled there that the goblets are made from the skulls of her sons and that their flesh has been cooked for the feast and their bones fed to the dogs. Atli faints and is carried to bed, where Gudrún rushes and thrusts a sword in his chest. Gudrún then takes to wandering again and eventually drowns herself in the sea.

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